In a mobile backhaul (MBH) portion of a communication network, a switchover threshold which triggers load balancing in a node of the MBH portion, e.g., a microwave ring network, is manually configured along a label switching path (LSP). In a communication network such as a telecommunication network, the backhaul portion of the network typically comprises the intermediate links between the core network, or backbone network, and the, particularly small, subnetworks at the edge of the entire network.
For example, the bandwidth of microwave links is not always fixed and is prone to fluctuate due to external conditions such as weather. Typically, higher modulation schemes that provide higher bandwidth are used under normal weather conditions, and lower modulation schemes are used under unfavorable conditions that affect wireless transmission such as rain, thereby resulting in reduced bandwidth. Efficient utilization of the whole available network bandwidth is one key issue in MBH, especially when using microwaves. In some failure scenarios where a particular transport path is degraded due to rain, low priority traffic could get rerouted through an alternate path to achieve better utilization of the network bandwidth and provide better experience to customer.
Internet Protocol (IP)/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is being widely deployed in service provider networks extending all the way to the access domain. It is becoming a preferred packet transport technology in microwave networks as well. Based on above reasons, the load balancing to achieve the goal of efficient bandwidth utilization together with adaptive modulation can be based on MPLS forwarding or similar forwarding techniques.
In order to enable nodes of the network to make load balancing decisions, LSP switchover thresholds have to be configured manually on all the nodes of each LSP. On each node, a switchover threshold for all LSPs has to be set one by one independently of whether the node is a transit router or an ingress router of the LSP concerned. Considering the huge number of LSPs existing in the network, the complex configuration may result in rollout delays and extra costs. Further, the manual configuration is error-prone as the threshold for each LSP on all nodes has to be consistent. Still further, it is difficult to maintain the threshold when the threshold needs to be updated based on varying network situations.
In summary, the manual switchover threshold pre-configuration is costly, error-prone and has poor maintenance characteristics.